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You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Meetups / Proof of Life: Buffalo Meet-Up

Proof of Life: Buffalo Meet-Up

by Anne Laurie|  April 5, 20187:03 pm| 66 Comments

This post is in: Meetups, Readership Capture

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From participant Zamphour:

From Left to Right, in the standing photo, are Smedley the uncertain, Groucho48, Our American Cousin 16 (!), mle, Zamphuor & her SO Bill, and Gelfling545 in front.

A good time was had by all (or so they all said). Was hoping you could post a couple of photos…
We all agreed that we’d like to do this again, so if anyone else is interested from the area, please leave a comment & we’ll try to set up another get together.

The weather was less than hospitable, so we were sorry to miss out on meeting dogmom & catpal. Hopefully they can make it next time.

Good-looking bunch of jackals!

Remember… if these pics inspire anyone, send me a proposed city / general date, I’ll put up a post, and y’all can hammer out a meet-up for *your* town, too!

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Reader Interactions

66Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    April 5, 2018 at 7:07 pm

    Sweetness.

  2. 2.

    Fair Economist

    April 5, 2018 at 7:09 pm

    Looks like it was fun!

  3. 3.

    p.a.

    April 5, 2018 at 7:11 pm

    Nice; possibly the best-composed group photo yet.

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    April 5, 2018 at 7:13 pm

    As usual, I’m astonished by how normal you all look. ?

  5. 5.

    Cermet

    April 5, 2018 at 7:14 pm

    For jackal’s, you all look rather laid back and restrained. What gives?

  6. 6.

    efgoldman

    April 5, 2018 at 7:15 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m astonished by how normal you all look.

    As opposed to…?

  7. 7.

    Baud

    April 5, 2018 at 7:15 pm

    @efgoldman: Me.

  8. 8.

    efgoldman

    April 5, 2018 at 7:17 pm

    @Baud:

    Me.

    Usually can’t tell a sociopath book by its cover

  9. 9.

    batguano

    April 5, 2018 at 7:18 pm

    There should be a northern Ohio meetup

  10. 10.

    jharp

    April 5, 2018 at 7:23 pm

    Spent most of my life in northeast Ohio and I always liked Buffalo. Though man can it snow there.

    And for those who haven’t yet visited nearby Niagara Falls you are missing out. It’s very cool.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    April 5, 2018 at 7:25 pm

    @efgoldman: I never claimed to be a successful sociopath.

  12. 12.

    ruemara

    April 5, 2018 at 7:27 pm

    And a handsome group the Buffalo contingent is!

    @jharp: I really do want to see it some time.

  13. 13.

    Cermet

    April 5, 2018 at 7:31 pm

    I just knew that Lincoln was a fellow Jackal! Where else but here at BJ would he feel comfortable being surrounded by fellow thinkers.

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    April 5, 2018 at 7:32 pm

    Nice looking group

  15. 15.

    rikyrah

    April 5, 2018 at 7:32 pm

    Stormy Daniels’ attorney is happy

    https://twitter.com/politicususa/status/982033141144670208?s=19

  16. 16.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    April 5, 2018 at 7:34 pm

    That’s a great sized group. You can all talk and get to know a bunch of people.

  17. 17.

    germy

    April 5, 2018 at 7:38 pm

    Question for cat people here:

    Those little tubes of “hairball remedy” you see in the supermarket, next to the cat food. Are they safe and effective?

    The little girl just threw up again. A big one.

  18. 18.

    sacrablue

    April 5, 2018 at 7:44 pm

    @ruemara: Maybe we should try getting a meetup organized here.

  19. 19.

    Spanky

    April 5, 2018 at 7:51 pm

    @Cermet: One confirmed Republican in the group.

  20. 20.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 5, 2018 at 7:52 pm

    @germy: I use Laxatone for my orange kitteh, it was recommended by the vet. I get it from Amazon.

  21. 21.

    Spanky

    April 5, 2018 at 7:53 pm

    @germy: Is it a cigar-shaped lump of hair? Just making sure it’s really hair she’s throwing up.

    Call your vet with the brand name and check. They should be able to tell you immediately, and with some authority.

  22. 22.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 5, 2018 at 7:55 pm

    @Baud: We have never seen you. You may look like George Clooney for all we know.

  23. 23.

    germy

    April 5, 2018 at 7:56 pm

    @Spanky: Yes, cigar shaped.

    She’s allowed me to brush her. She puts up with it for about half a minute before the claws come out.

    I assume she’s shedding her winter coat.

  24. 24.

    geg6

    April 5, 2018 at 7:57 pm

    Love these BJ meetup pics!

    I’d happily attend one if I could ever talk any of the other Yinzers into one. But I’ve suggested it for years now and no one ever takes me up on it.

    Oh well. At least I’ve had Cole as guest at my house, even if he did spend a lot of his time outside, away from me, John, Devin, Koda and Lovey.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    April 5, 2018 at 7:58 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Well, Clooney isn’t “normal” since he is devastatingly handsome.

  26. 26.

    germy

    April 5, 2018 at 7:58 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Laxatone. I don’t see that at our local store, so I guess Amazon will have to send.

  27. 27.

    MomSense

    April 5, 2018 at 7:59 pm

    Look at all those beautiful juicers!

    @schrodingers_cat:

    He may be George Clooney for all we know!

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    April 5, 2018 at 8:02 pm

    @Spanky:
    They were a very different party in Abe’s day. Nowadays he’d be an ex-Republican like John Cole.

  29. 29.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    April 5, 2018 at 8:02 pm

    I need a get-together here near Washington, D.C. sometime soon, preferably in Washington itself or in Alexandria. Somebody needs to make this happen. I’d do it myself, but I can’t organize my way out of a paper bag.

  30. 30.

    efgoldman

    April 5, 2018 at 8:04 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    You may look like George Clooney

    Or like the hunchback of Notre Dame

  31. 31.

    Tazj

    April 5, 2018 at 8:04 pm

    I’m sorry(for myself), that I couldn’t make it for the meet-up. What a fine looking group! Maybe next time I can swing it.

    @germy: I hope your kitty feels better. I used something that I got at the grocery store for a previous cat and it was fine, but it’s probably better as Spanky says to check with your vet.

  32. 32.

    germy

    April 5, 2018 at 8:05 pm

    @Tazj: Thank you.

  33. 33.

    Cermet

    April 5, 2018 at 8:09 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Me either on organizing skills; I almost went to the last Jackal meeting in/near DC but was beaten down by the traffic – i.e. wimped out due to fear of not finding parking.

    Lincoln today, would be, and so now is, a democrat in both heart and thinking; more than that, he’d be a proud Jackal once reading most the posters here (excluding my rant’s, of course.)

  34. 34.

    Gelfling 545

    April 5, 2018 at 8:10 pm

    @Cermet: alcohol. Much alcohol.

  35. 35.

    Gelfling 545

    April 5, 2018 at 8:13 pm

    @germy: yes. But butter works as well.

  36. 36.

    germy

    April 5, 2018 at 8:17 pm

    @Gelfling 545: What about cocoanut oil?

    We have a ton of cocoanut oil in the house for some reason.

  37. 37.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 5, 2018 at 8:18 pm

    @Baud: You said you weren’t normal looking, so I took you at your word.

  38. 38.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 5, 2018 at 8:21 pm

    @germy: I tried Vaseline, coconut oil and olive oil, but none were as effective as Laxatone. We give it to her once a week. She had massive hairball related obstruction about 5 years ago, and it had to be surgically removed. After that the vet suggested Laxatone, every week. So far it has worked.

    ETA: Both Petsmart and my locally owned pet store carries Laxatone. But Amazon sells it for half the price compared to those two stores.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    April 5, 2018 at 8:23 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Why would you do that?

  40. 40.

    Gelfling 545

    April 5, 2018 at 8:23 pm

    @germy: if the cat will eat it. They tend to really like butter.

  41. 41.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 5, 2018 at 8:26 pm

    @Baud: Because you haven’t given me any reason to distrust you.

  42. 42.

    Sab

    April 5, 2018 at 8:28 pm

    @batguano: YES!

  43. 43.

    Catherine D.

    April 5, 2018 at 8:28 pm

    @germy: My vet recommended a quarter teaspoon of Mirralax mixed into canned food once a day for hairballs, and it’s worked really well. Since it’s a stool softener, the hair just passes through.

  44. 44.

    danielx

    April 5, 2018 at 8:33 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Or Ted Kaczynski.

  45. 45.

    oatler.

    April 5, 2018 at 8:34 pm

    @Catherine D.: There goes my bezoar recipe.
    .

  46. 46.

    Patricia Kayden

    April 5, 2018 at 8:39 pm

    I always love putting the names with the faces. Lovely photos.

  47. 47.

    CaseyL

    April 5, 2018 at 8:44 pm

    Fun group! Love how you got Abe to pose with you; was JFK too shy?

    Re Hairballs: My standby has always been Petromalt. Unfortunately, it is not my kitties’ standby. All my previous cats loved it so much I called it Kitty Candy, but the current two don’t like it. So I brush them… when they let me.

  48. 48.

    Spanky

    April 5, 2018 at 8:47 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: Well, if we ever have a Southern MD meetup, I’ll be the one that looks devastatingly average.

  49. 49.

    germy

    April 5, 2018 at 8:49 pm

    Tomlyn Laxatone?

  50. 50.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 5, 2018 at 8:56 pm

    @germy: That’s the one.

  51. 51.

    Mary G

    April 5, 2018 at 8:57 pm

    Juicers loose in the wild! Yay you.

  52. 52.

    Amir Khalid

    April 5, 2018 at 9:00 pm

    From the Great Moments in Censorship file: Iranian TV censors Italian football club’s badge.

  53. 53.

    Jay

    April 5, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    @germy:

    Squirt about half a teaspoon of vasoline down the cat’s throat, ( when they first start trying to hack up a hairball). On short hair cats it’s ususally good for 3 or more months, longhairs, less.

    The hairball comes out with other stuff in tiny pieces in the litterbox.

  54. 54.

    HRA

    April 5, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    Great photos, fellow Buffalo people! I am now sure that I have never been to that place. I once lived close to the Elmwood strip and went there more often.
    Yes, the nasty weather stopped me from coming out to our meetup.

    For those who mentioned wanting to come to Buffalo, you have to come in the summer to see our new waterfront and always make plans to go to see Niagara Falls. Mr A. and I went once a week to the Falls on both sides when we were dating. .

  55. 55.

    Kayla Rudbek

    April 5, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    @germy: I used to use butter or Vaseline for the late lamented Mister Dairy Junkie to prevent hairballs, but that was pre-Internet days. Mister Dairy Junkie didn’t care that much for the Vaseline but he would lick it off his paws in order to get rid of it.

  56. 56.

    Aleta

    April 5, 2018 at 9:21 pm

    Speaking of Lincoln, this is funny (if you think it is):

    karen han
    ‏@karenyhan
    daniel day-lewis is on my train and casually just looking at his flip phone

  57. 57.

    Kayla Rudbek

    April 5, 2018 at 9:23 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): La Porta’s or Theismann’s are both close to the King Street metro station. I still think that La Porta’s may have the best happy hour deals in Old Town Alexandria with respect to food/drink combos but that’s something to research.

  58. 58.

    efgoldman

    April 5, 2018 at 9:28 pm

    @Kayla Rudbek:

    I used to use butter or Vaseline for the late lamented Mister Dairy

    We haven’t had so much fun in a thread since Cole got injured shaving his cat’s ass

  59. 59.

    catpal

    April 5, 2018 at 9:38 pm

    Sorry I missed this meetup – weather, power outages, work happened. What a great group and Yes please plan another meetup – I would really like to meet all of you!

  60. 60.

    Jay

    April 5, 2018 at 9:55 pm

    @germy:

    BTW, set aside time to brush them every day. Pet them first, brush them ’till they get cranky, ( chin and ear brushes reduces the crankyness), put the brush away, pet them some more, call it a day.

    Each day it will get longer and longer.

    A friend of ours had a matted, antisocial cat, she had to leave with us for 6 months, ( it would attack people). I pinned it down and started brushing it every time it came near me, stopping only when it was really agitated, and not just trying to intimidate me.

    It stopped attacking people, became a matless longhaired, and would come up on the couch for pats and brushing when I watched TV in the evenings.

  61. 61.

    Kayla Rudbek

    April 5, 2018 at 10:04 pm

    @efgoldman: one dollop of Vaseline on the cat’s lower leg maybe once a month, although Mister Dairy Junkie was a short-haired cat so he didn’t need to be treated that often. He would also eat grass when he went outside and invariably vomit from that. Crazy cat. I still miss him – he died when I went off to grad school, like he knew I wasn’t coming back.

  62. 62.

    TomatoQueen

    April 5, 2018 at 10:12 pm

    Laxatone comes in chew form also, for those cats who don’t like the gel. I get them from Chewy’s. Luca, an ill-tempered mackerel tabby, gets one every morning crumbled into his food (Sheba chicken, grain-free, also from Chewy’s.). Luca also has issues with being brushed, but responds well to several passes with the fake Furminator (eBay this time) twice a week–sheds like mad year round and has a coarse topcoat.

  63. 63.

    satby

    April 5, 2018 at 11:14 pm

    Nice looking group, glad the meet up was a success!

  64. 64.

    Dog Mom

    April 5, 2018 at 11:58 pm

    I regret missing the gathering too – I’m usually not wimpy about the weather, but the wind was pretty darned intense yesterday. I’m good for another time – this winter can’t last forever. . .

  65. 65.

    Groucho48

    April 6, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    I think we all had a good time and I’d be happy for another meet up. Maybe we could get JFK to join us next time.

  66. 66.

    Zamphuor

    April 6, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    Thank you Anne Laurie for posting our pix, it was a fun evening.

    Side note to mle, your gloves are at the restaurant, they are holding them for you :)

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